Friday, 22 July 2011

“Bad roads—so, what’s the deal with them?”

Walking in the roads is a huge pain these days. And
so is driving. And so is the use of any form of public transport that runs on
surface; except maybe the state transport buses—they’re a hazard by themselves,
and right now, adding those to the equation would be the perfect recipe for
either a colossal disaster, or perhaps, the best bloody ride of our lives.

Anyway, I suppose you get my point: this post is a
ramble/rant against bad roads. I know it’s probably an old issue by now (well,
Hindustan Times certainly has found a new issue for the second page; about
time, I’d say!) but as with all other notes, I wanted to be sure of the, let’s
say, gravity of the issue here. Suffice to say that after thirty-one near
misses in the nearly two month’s abstinence from driving, and a month long
campaign by HT, I have decided that the issue has sufficient gravity.

Bad roads. Hmm. So, where does it start? Well, while
a section of the civil society would scream “politicians!”, “corruption!”, I,
sir, would beg to differ. There is, I believe, a matter of great scientific
inquiry involved—which thanks to the sorry levels of public intellect—is absent
from all discussions of public importance. I would not talk of contractors and
the BMC here, partly because of the scientific nature of my inquiry, and mostly
because I know very little of it. What I will focus on, as always, is how we
Indians adapt, or rather, should adapt.

Thanks to Anna Hazare and his “team” of civil
society members, the people of India have lost one it’s most enshrined of
virtues: adaptability. People no longer think it to be cool to duck, jump,
side-step, run, and even sleep, while doing most of our daily tasks. Make no
mistake; I am not equating adaptability with complacency here. The former is an
active process, involving a high level of cognition and fine-motor skill
dependency; the latter is, well, doing nothing other than not doing what I just
described.

Let me illustrate. So, they say bad roads are
dangerous. I concur, they are; but let’s adapt, shall we? The SAS and the Royal
Marines are among the best military units in the world because they train in
the harsh environs of moors in northern England. We have a Dartmoor on
practically every station road, and during the monsoons, there is nothing
better than cross-country training while on your way to work (the dirty clothes
would irk many. But as of now, that’s the only glitch I see in my near-perfect
hypothesis).

Yes, I agree that cars and other large vehicles are
very clearly a hazard. So, I’d say, we should ban them from the roads. Sounds
simplistic? Well, that’s because it is. Until you bring up that bit about
political will and public apathy.

We’re so accustomed to the comfort of our cars, that
we’d yell “bloody murder!” to any such proposition. Now that, ladies and gents,
is complacency. I mean, we can all agree that cars and other vehicles are huge
contributing factor to pollution levels in the city, and the abomination we
collectively call ‘traffic jams’ (hmm, funny jargon; mental note for next
post). Most of them have very low ground clearance, use a lot of fuel on account
of driving on for miles in second gear, and frankly, they come in some very
horrible colours. They are also, correct me if I’m wrong, a major contributing
factor to the whole pot-hole scenario as well.

Any road has a carrying capacity; if a road is built
with a carrying capacity of 50,000 cars in say, six months, then they end up
carrying over two-hundred thousand in the same period in the real world (Note:
I think my figures are maybe a tad bit exaggerated). The point being: our
roads, no matter how corrupt the contractor is (Yes, sue me, Mr Hazare; or
better still, go on a fast), are built to carry a certain amount of cars in a
given period of time, as they are anywhere else in the world—except perhaps
Cuba and some other failed Communist states. And if there’s a marked increase
in the pressure on roads, particularly due to faulty driving (this is India!), braking and speeding (and
not the mention, the state transport buses)—all of which we see plenty in
India—the roads naturally would suffer. And here we aim to hang the poor
contractors. Tsk Tsk.

Another thing most of us fail to see is the
potential for rally cars and sports utility vehicles. Yes, those very idiotic,
large, the all-brawn-no-brain, Sunny Deol type SUVs; particularly the Range
Rovers and Land Rovers. What we need are more liberal policies and a reduction
on taxation. Heck, they’re even coming up with the ‘green’ versions for the
eco-mentalists (what an aberration, but still—).

So, bottom line: if India wants to figure on the
global map for reasons other than its loud civil society and Mayawati’s spat
with Assange, we seriously need to look into the potential bad roads have for
us. And once again, we must prove to the world how adaptable we are. Adaptable,
mind you, not complacent!